Video games have always been form of media with a strong community. There are the developers that make the games and the players that play them. While the original creators have a set plot, backstories for characters, and other bits of canon to consider, it's not unusual for the players to come up with their own fan theories. Some games have taken this practice and elaborated on it. Games like Overwatch didn't have any original source material or campaign/single-player mode, and yet they have a ton of lore associated to it.

It's things like Overwatch's comics that show us the history of characters and stories that the game itself just can't tell. There's the short comic that revealed Tracer's sexuality. This one in particular made a massive splash when it first appeared. It was shared all over the place, and everyone was talking about it. It's now part of the reason for Tracer's popularity. Overwatch is certainly one of the most well-known examples of exterior game lore being popular, but it isn't the only one.

While Injustice has plenty of source material to choose from, i.e. any of the DC comics or any of the films based on DC characters, it still has made an effort to come up with its own game specific history. The Injustice: Gods Among Us comic series worked as a prequel to the games. For those who wanted deeper meaning to their fighting game, they could pick up the entire run of comics for pretty cheap. Those who didn't feel the need to know more didn't have to read the comics to enjoy the game.

It's because of things like this that video games are becoming much more intense and involved than they already were. This is talking about a media that sucks people in for dozens, sometimes hundreds of hours on end already. With the inclusion of outside source material for the games, the obsession can really take over. The Witcher was originally a set of books, became a game series, and now will be a television show. Fans can read the books and will eventually be able to watch the show. All will give them parts of the plot that might not exist in the games alone.

The fact that developers have recognized that fans of games will always want more is fantastic for us. No longer will we have to sit on our theories for our entire lives. We used to always hope that the relationships we thought existed unspoken within our favorite games were true. Now we can find out if they are true! Thanks to small comic releases or other media, the developers of video games can tell stories that the game itself doesn't always allow for explicitly.

The other side of this lore coin is the thought process that our concepts of relationships and histories of characters and video games are better when they're left unproven. Maybe you like creating theories about game characters, because it's fun for you to put your own spin on faces that you know and enjoy. It's possible that you are perfectly fine not knowing whether or not it was intentional, because it means something to you. This school of thought can be equally true, and even with confirmation from developers this can still continue.

What side do you fall on? Would you rather have fan theories confirmed by developers or do you dare to dream on your own? Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to hear your thoughts.